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In matters of commerce, sports can seem to be divorced from the real world.

On Saturday and Sunday, no less than 68 nations in the two hemispheres are engaged in World Cup soccer qualifying matches.

In Europe, no team seems more removed from domestic affairs than Russia. The country is sickened by a sunken submarine and a burned-out television tower, the government admits there is scarcely money to run institutions, yet the soccer federation has announced that on top of bonuses for winning or tying group games, the players will share an extra $1 million if the squad qualifies for World Cup 2002.

The Russians kick off against Switzerland on Saturday, and later face Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Faroe Islands in the group.

The size of the special bonus reflects the belief that sporting success lifts the morale of a nation. Two men who must have greatly lifted the morale of their nation make their final international appearances Saturday, although in friendly competition, at Stade de France near Paris.

Meanwhile, Spain has a most intriguing World Cup qualifying journey. It plays Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo. Germany, once so powerful yet recently so embarrassed in the sport internationally, attempts a new beginning with its opening group match against Greece in Hamburg.

Spanish and German fears are nothing compared to the emotions likely in San Pedro Sula, where Honduras encounters its neighbor, El Salvador. So far, theirs is the only World Cup rivalry to actually precipitate a war. In 1969, the cross-border soccer enmity was deemed the excuse for a four-day conflict in which 2,000 people died.

Now, in more stable times, the teams meet in their second encounter of the summer. Honduras, already a surprise qualifier for the Olympic soccer tournament, emerged a 5-2 victor in the first match in San Salvador.

In Rio de Janeiro, another of the poorer aspirants from the Americas attempts to inflict further humiliation on mighty Brazil. The visitors hail from Bolivia, an impoverished land that nevertheless boasts a splendid soccer youth academy, called Tahuichi. Its founder, Roly Aguileira, was once exiled in Brazil. From there, he imported a trainer to coach street kids, to wean them off drugs and crime. He succeeded to the extent that Tahuichi provided the nucleus of a national squad that reached the 1994 World Cup.

Now Aguileira is ailing but his academy is still producing young players. Bayern Munich has just bought a 15-year-old from Tahuichi, but Bolivia can barely muster funds to play World Cup qualifiers. Its coach has taken a 60 percent pay cut. Poor Bolivia visits Brazil at a low ebb for both sides.

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Demands on Brazil's stars — by the European clubs that own Rivaldo & Co. and by Nike Inc., which sponsors the Brazilian soccer federation — have sapped the national team's strength. With Ronaldo injured and considering a further three-month convalescence in the United States, Brazil has tried 12 strikers in seven matches. None has scored.

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ON SUNDAY, Romario, 35, is expected to be brought out of mothballs. He is brilliance and trouble rolled into one small, gifted and wayward man. Wanderley Luxemburgo, the national coach, is desperate.

"Idiot!" the critics chanted after Brazil failed to beat Uruguay in June. Brazil then lost in Paraguay, 2-1, beat the old enemy Argentina, 3-1, but lost again, 3-0, in Chile.

"Brazilians have to live with a new reality," cautioned Luxemburgo. "This change had to happen some time, and its happening under my command."

At a press conference in Rio this week, Luxemburgo admitted past failings as a businessman. The tax authorities are on his tail, and so are the accusers, who say Luxemburgo took commissions on buying and selling players during his years coaching the clubs Flamengo, Palmeiras and Corinthians. He denies that. "The biggest crime I committed was to come from Bragantino," he said, referring to his start in a lowly Sao Paolo club. "And to reach the national team. I am no crook, I do not hide in my house."

"My president has full confidence in my work," he added. "Brazil will win on Sunday — and win well."

No doubt it will. It has to beat opponents like Bolivia, or else the unthinkable is on the horizon. Brazil has never missed a World Cup; the tournament would just not be the same without it.

After Sunday, Luxemburgo can escape his homeland. He heads to Sydney, where he hopes to organize something that Brazil has never accomplished: winning the Olympic soccer gold medal.

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